


Fandomtine Day 1: Hanging Fire

by Lyrstzha



Series: Fandomtine Project: A Litany in the Time of Plague [1]
Category: Firefly
Genre: Established Relationship, Flash Fic, Gen, Light Angst, Lockdown Life, M/M, Pandemics, Quarantine, fandomtine project
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-09
Updated: 2021-02-09
Packaged: 2021-03-15 04:48:45
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 891
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29308305
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lyrstzha/pseuds/Lyrstzha
Summary: Just a glimpse at lock down life for the crew ofSerenityduring a pandemic.
Relationships: Malcolm Reynolds/Simon Tam
Series: Fandomtine Project: A Litany in the Time of Plague [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2152647
Comments: 4
Kudos: 14





	Fandomtine Day 1: Hanging Fire

**Author's Note:**

> The title is from Audre Lorde's "Hanging Fire." This is my answer to day 1 of the fandomtine meme:  
> 1) The main characters of one of your fandoms are quarantined together. How do they handle it?

At first, Mal doesn't believe they need to lock down even though Simon tries to explain to him how serious things are no less than half a dozen times. Mal thinks they should keep working. But jobs start to dry up, or get more perilous with ports closed down and Alliance cruisers stopping traffic. Maybe they could keep trying to get by, but it would be a hell of a risk and they'd have a hard time earning enough to pay for the fuel to stay in the air. Plus, Mal doesn't say so, but he starts to think Simon was right about being more careful anyway. So they land on Hera in a wooded spot, and they dig in there for the duration.

It's mostly okay. They mask up and take the mule into town for supplies as needed, but otherwise stay in or near _Serenity_. It's quiet, which makes Mal a bit nuts sometimes. There are only so many times he can shine _Serenity_ 's hull or scour her deck grating. But he reads when he can sit still and finds others chores to do when he can't. They have a fence around their perimeter that they don't especially need, for instance.

Simon really wants to go into town and volunteer at the hospital, but Zoe reminds him he's a fugitive and Mal guilts him about leaving River alone. He and Mal vent their mutual frustration in arguing and sexing, and everyone else takes lots of walks by the river that runs past outside when the yelling (of either kind, really) gets too loud.

Zoe takes the time to do small things she normally hasn't got time for. She mends her clothes and her second-best suit of body armor. She reaches out to some other survivors she knew in the war. She teaches herself to swim in the river, which feels weightless enough to be comfortingly familiar. She starts writing something she doesn't let anyone read.

Inara starts taking clients by wave. She has to get creative, but she's up to it. She misses the intimacy of actual touch with her clients, but her new clients are lonely and anxious and often call her to talk as much as to have wave-sex, and there's a different kind of satisfaction to that sort of intimacy.

On Sundays, Book puts on his mask, gathers a megaphone Kaylee rigged up for him and either Zoe or Jayne as escort, takes the mule down to town, and gives a socially distanced sermon in the town square. He doesn't charge for this, of course, but townsfolk are happy to leave offerings of food or goods anyway. This is how they acquire a couple of chickens, which Mal only complains about until Wash makes him an omelet with their first eggs. Then Mal builds a proper chicken coop and reads some guides on chicken care. He talks to the chickens when he thinks no one can hear him.

Wash manages to work as a flight instructor over the Cortex, now that everyone's learning remotely. It's hardly the same as taking someone up in an actual ship to see how they handle it, but it's the best anyone can do for the moment. He's funny and charming enough that his classes fill reliably, and his salary is helpful for buying supplies in town.

From this, Kaylee gets the idea to start her own channel on the Cortex. Every day she puts up a new video of how to make or fix something. She gets some weird, creepy fans, but also lots of nice ones who seem to find her channel soothing. They donate good money to her account, and the first thing she buys is some seeds to plant near _Serenity_. She subsequently devotes a whole three episodes of her show to building snail and bird repelling devices to protect her strawberries.

This, in turn, is why Jayne gets the bright idea to put his own show on the Cortex all about guns, in the hopes that his adoring fans will send money, or at least naked pictures. He gets six die-hard fans who send him weird manifestos and conspiracy theories, but at least they do also send him naked pictures. He spends the rest of the time lifting weights and wheedling Mal about trying to visit the nearest whorehouse. (“I'll wear my mask th' whole time,” Jayne insists. “Don't never kiss 'em on the mouth anyways.” “You go to the cathouse, you can _stay_ there,” Mal retorts. “Ain't comin' back here if you leave.”)

Perhaps surprisingly, it's River who's the most restless. She can feel the anxiety coming from everywhere like a miasma rising out from the Core to the Rim. It sets her on edge. When she can, she cuddles the chickens or helps Kaylee garden, but sometimes she just can't settle her brainpan enough to do anything so constructive. Some days she just crawls into the smallest spaces _Serenity_ has to offer and cries to herself until Simon finds her. “Fear is also a virus. Hooks into your brain instead of your throat,” she whispers to him sometimes. “But masks can't hold it.” But then Simon holds her, and that reminds her that in this time and in this place everyone she cares about is all right, and that is no small thing.


End file.
